


Tofu Noodle Soup

by MeredithBrody



Category: Designated Survivor (TV)
Genre: F/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 06:12:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12834984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: Seth is sick, Lyor is teasing him but Kendra just takes care of him.





	Tofu Noodle Soup

**Author's Note:**

> I am really, really sick. Really sick. And this came out of it.

Seth had never felt quite so stuffed up in a very long time. It wasn't just the cold that was bothering him, it was the fact that almost everyone kept telling him to go home. He would have done that, if he wasn't so worried that that would leave Lyor near the press corps. Stepping out of his office, Seth should have known it would be just his luck that the rather odd political director was the one waiting there. "You look like you died in the night and someone reanimated you. Is Kendra a mad scientist?"

"I have a… wait what?" Lyor's question through him off entirely when it finally registered in his sick mind. The idea of his wife being a mad scientist was a little bit of a turn on, he'd admit, but he was fairly sure that Kendra was quite happy just being a lawyer. It was nice to know that he looked as crappy as he felt. Even his ears felt like they had gunk in them.

"Hey, it's a reasonable question." Lyor defended, holding his hands up as he spoke. "She's both sexy and intelligent, that normally means mad scientist or a Bond villain..." That was an accurate description, and something that Seth filed away in his mind to laugh about with Kendra later, but right now he was just happy that Lyor's thought process was not a common one.

"Dude, I am so glad I don't live in your brain. My wife is neither a mad scientist or a Bond villain." Before Lyor could say something else to that, Seth decided to cut him off, though he really hated how his words sounded through his blocked up nose. "She didn't even come home last night. She was here working with Aaron until stupid o'clock. I think she slept in her office." That wasn't great for the baby, but Seth knew reminding her of that would lead to him sleeping in her office, so he had learnt his lesson.

"The upside to this job is you know she doesn't have time for an affair." Another comment of Lyor's that was just truthful enough that it made Seth doubt himself for a moment. Though the idea of Kendra having an affair was kind of hilarious to him. She couldn't lie when she wasn't in court, it just wasn't something she felt comfortable doing. If anything ever did happen, she'd probably tell him straight away.

"Shut up, dude. Don't say that about someone's wife." He tried to sound mad, but he was fairly sure it just sounded stuffy. He didn't have the chance to add anything else to his inflections right now because the stuffed nose stole all tone from his words.

"OK, you are really stuffy. Who is doing the briefing today?" Why was there an assumption that he wasn't going to be doing the briefing? He was the Press Secretary, a cold wouldn't normally stop him from doing his job and he's not going to let it stop him this time either. Sure, it might not be the best briefing of his life, but it was something he was still going to do.

"I'm giving the briefing, me, the Press Secretary." Alright, he could get sarcasm and disbelief through the snuffles. That was going to help when it came to the briefings. They were his default tones anyway so that wasn't going to change much. Given the Press Corps was who he spent most of his time with, he was fairly sure one of them was responsible for this cold anyway.

Lyor, apparently, thought he was making a joke about doing the briefing. "Oh yeah, yeah that's a good one. No, really. Who's doing the briefing." He wasn't that sick, he could still talk about the President's agenda for the day with some clarity. It just may take a minute or two longer to be understood. "I'll do it." Oh no, that was not happening. Lyor was going nowhere near Seth's briefing room.

"You will go nowhere near my press room. You get hostile." Seth may occasionally descend into sarcasm, but all Lyor ever replied with was sarcasm. "It will be fine, one of them gave me this cold anyway." Seth turned the corner and smiled as Kendra came out from her office at almost the same moment. It wasn't planned like this, but his did like it when he got to spend an extra moment with his wife and the extra weight she was currently carrying.

"Hey babe, Lyor." Kendra nodded to Lyor then wrapped her arm around Seth's back as they started down the corridor. Given her current size, Seth wasn't all that surprised people just got out of the way. He had never realised that pregnant women got quite this big. Especially not when they still had a few weeks to go yet. More than that he was surprised she still came anywhere near him.

"Your husband is a walking biohazard and you should convince him to go home." Lyor said before Seth could even say anything. If Lyor actually thought Kendra would convince him to go home, their friend hadn't really paid any attention to the relationship at all. They didn't tell each other to do anything other than buy milk, it wasn't how they worked.

"I'm not the boss of him, he'll go home if he wants." Kendra's immediate response made Seth smile then tilt his head so it was resting on top of hers. He hadn't realised how tired he was until that second, Kendra turned her head up and kissed his cheek before giving him a squeeze, probably reminding him he needed to try and stay awake. "You still sick puppy?"

"This is where I speed ahead and tell the rest of the senior staff to put on biohazard precautions." Lyor's discomfort was clear, and Seth didn't even need to look at Kendra to know she was enjoying this moment just as much as he was. There was nothing better, in Seth's mind, than making his friend deeply uncomfortable.

"Am I a bad person for laughing at how uncomfortable our relationship makes him?" Kendra asked, echoing his thoughts. They probably were bad people, but he didn't really mind all that much. "I have a surprise for you tonight, even if you are sick and will probably get me sick." Seth didn't really want her to get sick, but they lived in the same house and even though he had been sick for a few days now Kendra had still wanted to cuddle up to him at night.

"You're too good to me." He grinned, the idea of a surprise was a nice one, especially one from Kendra who had never let him down with surprises yet. He did want her opinion on going home though, not that he thought she would actually say something definitive. They both tried to leave those decisions up to the other. "Do you think I should go home?"

"I think you should do whatever it is that you do when you're sick normally." Seth remember that, despite having a baby due in a few weeks, he hadn't actually known Kendra during the last cold season. "If you stay at work then stay at work. You have exactly 6 weeks to get over this cold though because this baby is due then and you need to not be sick when she gets here."

"I'll do my best." Yes, being healthy and without a cold when their son or daughter put in an appearance was exactly what they both needed. Maybe if this got any worse he would go home, or just call in sick tomorrow, for now, he would try and make some of his friends just as sick as he was. "Come on, let's go infect the senior staff."

He did manage to survive the rest of the day. He sniffed and sneezed his way through three press briefings, but by the time Emily sent him home after a strategy meeting he was feeling decidedly lightheaded. He was grateful Aaron offered to drop him off, as Seth was pretty sure travelling on public transport would have been a really bad idea. "Hey, you're home." He heard called almost the second he was through the door, and when he stepped into the large main room he was somewhat surprised to see Kendra in the kitchen. It was also obvious she was cooking, but he couldn't smell anything.

"I'd have been home two hours ago only I kept sneezing through the strategy briefing for tomorrow." The sneezes had led to Emily walking out of the room more than once so she wouldn't get sick, and Lyor saying that he probably should just stay home tomorrow. Seth hoped that a night of care from his wife would make everything seem much better.

"The president finally read you in, huh?" Kendra asked, and that reminded Seth that when he'd read through the plan and the statements that he knew Kendra had written the key phrases and almost everything. She'd be a decent speechwriter if she weren't a lawyer, but Seth was pretty sure she was happy there running the counsel's office.

"I'm always the last to know. This whole thing was your idea, wasn't it?" He had to ask, mostly to see if she admitted to it, but also to see exactly how much she would confirm or deny her level of involvement. He'd just ask Emily later for confirmation if he felt like he really needed to.

"Well, the President wanted to address it. I just wanted to make sure we all stayed out of prison." That was a good answer, damn he didn't know how much she was involved now but he also didn't want to press it any further, especially not when it was obvious she wasn't going to tell him anything. "Come sit down, I made dinner."

The bowl that was placed in front of him looked vaguely familiar, and now that he was close enough he could smell the stock and the garlic and a few other things, but he had no actual idea what she'd made, other than it did look very appetising, especially while he was feeling sick. "What is it?"

"Tofu noodle soup." She proclaimed, getting a bowl for herself and coming and sitting next to him on the breakfast bar. "We eat way too much take out, so from this week I'm going to start meal prepping. This, though, is to help get rid of the sickness." Of course, she would make something with tofu in place of chicken. How hadn't that occurred to him. "I've been a vegetarian since I was 14, so I don't know how to cook chicken. Tofu is just as good, though."

"Let's see about that." He teased, though he knew that Kendra was a good cook, he also liked to tease her about everything too. That was one of the hallmarks of their relationship and he wouldn't have it any other way. Taking a few spoonfuls of the soup he was actually surprised how good it actually was. "Hey, this is actually really good. You should cook more, babe."

"I think it will be something I do a lot more of. We're going to be parents soon, we really need to stop eating like college kids." Alright, she had him there. They had a terrible diet and he knew that came with working at the White House but still if she thought she would have time to cook or meal prep then he would help her whenever she asked. "Eat up, it'll make you feel better. Then a nice steam bath and bed."

"You're spoiling me, Ken." He was genuinely surprised by how much she was doing for him. Maybe it was just his bad luck, but most of his girlfriend's in the past had just avoided him when he was sick. They certainly hadn't cooked for him or cared for him in anything like the way that Kendra was right now.

"Well, someone has to nurse you back to health." Kendra teased, obviously not at all worried about catching the cold, even as she was getting ready for everything else that was going on for them. How did she keep it all together so well? Seth would never know, but he was extremely grateful for it. "Besides, if I get the cold you need to return the favour."

"I don't know how to make tofu noodle soup." He laughed because he was sure that there would be something else he could make if Kendra got sick, or if she was tired. He had all the Indian recipes that his mom had passed down too. He hadn't made most of them in a long time, but they were things he wouldn't easily forget.

"It's okay, I made a huge batch and when it's cool I'm going to put it into zip lock bags and freeze it." How the hell much had she made? Actually, judging by the size of the pot she'd probably made enough to feed everyone in the building. "We'll have enough to see us through December." By which point they would have a baby, and they would have to learn how to do all of this with a little person depending on them.

"What did I do to deserve you, huh?" A question he quietly asked himself daily, and despite the sarcastic tone he was giving it here, it was something he would probably always wonder. "Come share the bath with me." They didn't get to do that all that often, but they'd had a big bath installed for just this reason, and he looked forward to the times when they did that opportunity.

"Alright you twisted my arm." She laughed, finishing off her bowl much quicker than him. "Finish up, I'll go run it." She kissed his temple as she slid off the stool and headed through to the bathroom. No matter how sick Seth actually was, it was nice to be treated like this, and he certainly wasn't going to say no to sharing a bath with the woman he loved. Though he'd try not to share the germs.


End file.
